Saw “Life of Pi” yesterday evening. Beautiful computer graphics, in glorious 3D! And to use the wording of the Academy (the awards being right around the corner), they definitely “serve the film”.
As my friend Michael Wahrman has pointed out:
“Its success is our success, all of us who worked so hard to make CG work for film against the active opposition and indifference and lack of funding, etc. If there is any vindication for the sacrifices we made, it is the existence and success (in many senses of the word success) of films like Life of Pi.”
Well said Michael!
It is also the first Hollywood film that ever led me to commit an act of science. As soon as I got home after seeing this movie, the very first thing I did was go into the kitchen, fill a bowl with water, and then drop in a banana.
If you haven’t seen the film, this might not make sense to you. If you have, I suspect you did exactly what I did. In fact, I imagine that all across the United States over these last weeks, millions of curious moviegoers have returned home after seeing “Life of Pi”, grabbed the nearest bowl and banana, and performed their own empirical studies.
We are, after all, a nation of tinkerers. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that the makers of this film are receiving kickbacks from the Dole and Chiquita Banana companies.
Either try it, or – probably more often, sadly – google for the result. Or watch it on YouTube.